Although famous for their viral DECA dues video, South Plantation DECA has a lot more to share with the world. They excel in competition, membership, and spirit. They recently joined the 300 Club at the 2017 FL DECA CDC. They also are constant participants in Florida DECA Helping Hands. At our 2017 Fall Drive, they earned 2nd Place by donating over 3,000 items to the Daystar Life Center. They also hold the record for the most number of association officers from their chapter. They have had 19 serve and hope to increase this figure in the future.​ If you're looking for South Plantation DECA, it's easy to spot them at any conference or event! Their members and advisors are always willing to help out and participate. Not-to-mention, their chapter is always having fun and enjoying the moment! You can catch up with them on Twitter (@SPHSDECA_) or Instagram (@SPHS.DECA).

Mrs. O'Connor is an Academy of Finance teacher at Plantation High with an unhealthy love for DECA and all things Frozen. Her and her husband, Don, love to travel with their chapter. They’ve attended ICDC in Atlanta, Nashville, and Anaheim and is a four time attendee at the Florida DECA Career Development Conference. They also brought students to the Ultimate DECA Power Trip in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Mrs. O’Connor doesn’t shy away from her chapter’s service projects. She's an active participant in the various 5Ks and fundraisers that her students participate in. No matter what, Mrs. O'Connor is a constant supporter of her students. She always shows up for them and loves them dearly. Her students return the love and appreciation in endless amounts. The bond that Mrs. O'Connor shares with some of her closest students is something that can't be replicated.

One of DECA's guiding principles is Community Oriented. Today, I'm sharing the five steps to planning a community service project.

Find an Area in Need

The first step is to find someone or somewhere in need. By checking out the news or social media, one can recognize different groups in need. Pay attention to recent natural disasters or outbreaks.

Alert the Medias

Once you began planning the logistics of the service activities, you should plan the promotion of what you're doing! Make sure to post about it on our chapter social medias. Also, if it's a larger event, reach out to local news outlets for coverage in the nightly news or newspapers. One of your chapter members can also write an article for DECADirect.org detailing your efforts.

Complete the Service Project

Reach out to chapter members and your peers to help out in the activity. It's important to get the most people you can to help to cause the largest impact.

Reflection

After the service activity, host a meeting reflecting on your actions. Here, you can decide as a group whether or not it was a success. It's also a great way to start planning your next activity!

Celebration

Regardless of the amount you raised or people you helped, you did something to benefit a community! This is something to celebrate. Make sure to host a small celebration to encourage members to keep on helping in their communities.

Being academically prepared is one of DECA's Guiding Principles. A major point of this is college readiness. In today's blogpost, I'll share how members can utilize DECA in the college admissions process.1. Share your winnings! Don't be hesitant in including your DECA leadership positions and competitive titles. This is a great way to exhibit the hard work you put into DECA!2. Use the skills you learned through role plays and presentations in your admissions interviews! Make sure you issue a proper handshake, maintain eye contact, and keep the interviewer engaged! Also, utilize the information you've learned about dressing for success when it comes to your interview. Many colleges require professional or business casual dress depending on the scenario!3. Share your DECA story. If you have a unique relationship with DECA, make sure you explain it more in depth in your personal essay or interview.4. Ask your advisor for a recommendation letter! Your DECA advisor spend so much time with you that they probably know you best. They will be able to write the most detailed, impressive rec letter. However, make sure to ask in advance! Good luck to anyone currently applying to college! I can't wait to see how you'll succeed later in life. If you have any questions make sure you reach out to me via email (kassidy@fldeca.org) or social media (@kassidybraziel) !

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international initiative that introduces the world of entrepreneurship to today's youth in six continents around the world. This year, it takes place from November 13th to 19th. One of DECA Inc's Campaigns is centered around GEW. It has three main components necessary for submission. This includes three entries into the DECA Idea Challenge, three success stories of local entrepreneurs, and three community or school outreach activities. In the DECA Idea Challenge, small groups will work together to find a new use for a commonly used item in one week. They also must film a three minute video pitching their idea and upload it to YouTube. This is a great way to earn recognition and prize money for you chapter! First Place in the High School Category wins $750. For the success stories, chapters should interview business owners in your area to accurately report their stories. There are also multiple ways to perform outreach in your school and community. This includes advocating to your local government about GEW and its importance, starting a school based enterprise, inviting an entrepreneur to speak, creating an information board about famous entrepreneurs, and there's so many other choices!All actives must take place during Global Entrepreneurship Week! However, chapters have until December 1st to submit their campaigns to DECA Inc.

​Florida DECA was lucky enough to have four chapters attend DECA Inc's Emerging Leaders Summit in Reston, Virginia this July! Jesuit Tampa, Buchholz, East Ridge, and Cypress Bay were all in attendance! For three days, these incredible chapter leaders attended workshops, networked with other members, and enjoyed the D.C area. Here, they learned how to manage social media accounts, recruit members, and lead their members. One night, all conference attendees came together to tour the Washington D.C monuments. Members loved the fact they were able to see monuments dedicated to our nation's leaders. In summation, conference attendees learned how to use their leadership capabilities to lead their chapters into a LIMITLESS school year! Major kudos are in order to all chapters who participated! This is no small feat!If you'd like to join in on the festivities, you'll have to wait till next July to attend the Emerging Leader Summit in Chicago, Illinois. But, lucky for you, Florida DECA ELS is right around the corner! Join us for leadership workshops and competition preparation in St. Petersburg, Florida from November 3rd to 5th!

Much like baking a cake, there's a certain recipe chapter officers should follow when planning a successful school year. These ingredients are: • Commitment - Individuals must be completely committed to DECA to best serve their chapter. While participating in other activities is sometimes necessary, you should place DECA at a higher level than the rest. • Teamwork - What would an officer be without the rest of their teammates? It's so important that your teammates are also your friends. Try to set time aside for team-bonding, which will help you get to know each other on more personal levels. This will allow everyone to work together in a more cohesive manner. • Innovation - It's crucial that you try new things. You and your teammates can use innovation to think of unique solutions to reoccurring problems or to plan new events for the upcoming school year. • Originality - Everyone in your chapter brings something different to the table, make sure that you listen to all ideas and thoughts to gain a new perspective on things! If you all work together to share your talents, the possibilities for this school year will be LIMITLESS!However, the same recipe doesn't work for every single dessert. This school year, try to determine what ingredients best suit your chapter! When you do create a new recipe for success, make sure to share it with your fellow teammates and upcoming officers. Remember, a good recipe never goes bad!

For the upcoming school year, Florida DECA has revamped our Annual Business Plan! We've set new goals pertaining to the ABP to help better recognize and document chapter's accomplishments.Our first goal is to better incorporate our branding into the Annual Business Plan. To do this, we've continued dividing the ABP into the four sections of Academically Prepared, Community Oriented, Professionally Responsible, and Experienced Leaders. However, each of these sections will contain eight subsections built by DECA's Comprehensive Learning Program and Attributes and Values. The purpose of this is to better enforce and incorporate the DECA brand into Florida DECA.Our second goal is to assist chapters as much as possible. We hope to achieve this by continuing the menu aspect of the Annual Business Plan. This allows chapters to complete activities that best fit themselves and are most beneficial to their members. Our third goal is to relate the Annual Business Plan to the DECA Inc Campaigns. This year, we're striving to have a record number of chapters submit both the Annual Business Plan and DECA Inc Campaigns. To do so, we've created activities that could apply to both. This will make it much easier to complete the pair. Florida DECA's 2017-2018 Annual Business Plan will be released soon. It's currently in the final stages of revisions and we're striving to release the requirements as soon as possible. Follow @FloridaDECA on Twitter for the newest updates! ​

Hello Florida DECA! In today's video blog, I highlight some important tips on acing your role-play.A role-play is a real-world business scenario played out in front of a judge. It often includes a problem that needs to be solved or a situation that needs to be planned. There are two types of role-plays: series event and case study. A series event is done by one individual and allows 10 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of presentation. A case study is completed by two people and allots 30 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to present. My first tip is to pay attention to your performance indicators. These points are how your judges will score you. Make sure you explain each one in detail! However, don't overload the judge; only use at most three main points per performance indicator. My second tip is to utilize visual aids. A visual aid can be a flyer, business card, chart, graph, slogan, timeline, and more. The purpose is to give your judge something unique and creative to look at it. This tip will set you apart from other competitors! My final tip is to be confident! Confidence is noticeable to judges and is another trait that can set you apart. To allude that you're confident, try to avoid fidgeting and using filler worlds. Instead, maintain eye contact, facilitate a proper handshake, have correct posture, and smile. When competing, don't forget to also prepare and study for your test! Your test score is just as important as your role-play. To win, you have to perform well on both.Best of luck at whatever competition you plan on using these tips at!